Child Dials 911, Couple Killed by Responding Deputy

The Florida Highway Patrol says a 5 year-old boy’s 911 call on a deactivated cellular phone last March led to a fatal accident involving a Lee County sheriff’s deputy and an elderly couple. In a 60-page investigative report, the Patrol said the child’s parents had given him the telephone to play with after their cellular service ended, unaware that it was still capable of dialing 911. In fact, the child accidentally made one voice and three non-voice 911 calls. In response, a sheriff’s dispatcher dispatched two units to the child’s home. The deputies were responding together in separate vehicles, about a mile away from the residence. As they approached a signaled intersection, a vehicle entered from the right intending to make a left turn. The first deputy swerved and missed the vehicle. The second patrol car, traveling 78 mph, struck the vehicle. John and Marilyn Stefffen, 84 and 77 years-old, died from the collision. Dep. Roberto Torres, 28, was slightly injured. Investigators said during the first call, the child said to send, “a cop and a fire truck.” Deputies had previously been to the address for a domestic violence incident, perhaps hastening the deputies’ response. Call-backs to the cellular phone were not answered. Investigators said the boy had actually pressed “a very long series of numbers (one sequential string),” not the specific number 911. However, embedded in that string were the digits “911,” the report said. The State Attorney’s Office ruled there was insufficient evidence to press criminal charges against the child’s parents. Read more about the accident here, and download (pdf) the full collision report here.